The CIA is pro­hib­ited from spy­ing on Amer­ic­ans, and spy­ing on mem­bers of Con­gress and their staff would raise par­tic­u­lar con­cerns about the sep­ar­a­tion of powers. Con­gress cre­ated the House and Sen­ate In­tel­li­gence com­mit­tees in the 1970s to over­see the CIA, the Na­tion­al Se­cur­ity Agency, and oth­er spy agen­cies after un­cov­er­ing a slew of spy­ing ab­uses.

The CIA’s in­tern­al watch­dog, its in­spect­or gen­er­al, is re­view­ing wheth­er CIA agents hacked in­to the com­puters of Sen­ate staffers who were in­volved in pro­du­cing a re­port crit­ic­al of the agency’s now-de­funct de­ten­tion and in­ter­rog­a­tion pro­gram, The New York Timesre­por­ted Wed­nes­day. Ac­cord­ing to Mc­Clatchy, the in­spect­or gen­er­al’s of­fice has asked the Justice De­part­ment to in­vest­ig­ate the case.

The com­mit­tee worked on the 6,300-page in­ter­rog­a­tion re­port for years. The re­port, which re­mains clas­si­fied, con­cluded that bru­tal in­ter­rog­a­tion tech­niques pro­duced little valu­able in­tel­li­gence. Last June, the CIA re­spon­ded with its own 122-page re­port chal­len­ging par­tic­u­lar facts and the con­clu­sion of the Sen­ate’s doc­u­ment. End­ing the in­ter­rog­a­tion pro­gram was one of Pres­id­ent Obama’s first acts in of­fice.

Sen. Mark Ud­all, a Col­or­ado Demo­crat and mem­ber of the In­tel­li­gence pan­el, wrote a let­ter to Obama on Tues­day, ur­ging him to sup­port de­clas­si­fic­a­tion of the full re­port. Ud­all re­ferred vaguely to the CIA’s al­leged spy­ing on the com­mit­tee.

“As you are aware, the CIA has re­cently taken un­pre­ced­en­ted ac­tion against the Com­mit­tee in re­la­tion to the in­tern­al CIA re­view, and I find these ac­tions to be in­cred­ibly troub­ling for the Com­mit­tee’s over­sight re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and for our demo­cracy,” Ud­all wrote. “It is es­sen­tial that the Com­mit­tee be able to do its over­sight work — con­sist­ent with our con­sti­tu­tion­al prin­ciple of the sep­ar­a­tion of powers — without the CIA pos­ing im­ped­i­ments or obstacles as it is today.”

In Decem­ber, Ud­all said the com­mit­tee ob­tained in­tern­al CIA doc­u­ments that were “con­sist­ent with the In­tel­li­gence Com­mit­tee’s re­port” and con­tra­dicted the CIA’s of­fi­cial re­sponse.

Ac­cord­ing to The New York Times, the CIA be­lieved that the com­mit­tee may have some­how gained un­au­thor­ized ac­cess to the agency doc­u­ments. The agency began its al­leged spy­ing of the com­mit­tee to in­vest­ig­ate how the doc­u­ments were ob­tained, ac­cord­ing to the news re­port.

A CIA spokes­man de­clined to com­ment on the in­spect­or gen­er­al’s probe. Caitlin Hay­den, a White House spoke­wo­man, also de­clined to com­ment on the in­vest­ig­a­tion or when the pres­id­ent learned of pos­sible spy­ing on the Sen­ate com­mit­tee.

But she said the White House be­lieves that the “find­ings and con­clu­sion” of the in­ter­rog­a­tion re­port should be de­clas­si­fied, with ap­pro­pri­ate re­dac­tions.

Chris­toph­er An­ders, a le­gis­lat­ive coun­sel for the Amer­ic­an Civil Liber­ties Uni­on, said that if the CIA in fact spied on the Sen­ate In­tel­li­gence Com­mit­tee, it would be an “out­rageous vi­ol­a­tion of sep­ar­a­tion of powers.”

“CIA sur­veil­lance of Con­gress would be an­oth­er sign that the in­tel­li­gence com­munity has come to be­lieve that they are above the law, and should get only de­fer­ence from the oth­er branches of gov­ern­ment, not the mean­ing­ful over­sight that’s re­quired by the Con­sti­tu­tion,” An­ders said.

“Checks and bal­ances, es­pe­cially for agen­cies like the CIA and NSA that have many secret op­er­a­tions, are es­sen­tial for demo­crat­ic gov­ern­ment. At the very least, these re­ports should spur the com­mit­tee to vote quickly for the de­clas­si­fic­a­tion and re­lease of its full re­port in­to the CIA’s tor­ture pro­gram so the Amer­ic­an people can see what it is that the CIA is so eager to hide.”

The ex­ist­ence of the in­vest­ig­a­tion in­to CIA spy­ing ap­pears to ex­plain a ques­tion that Demo­crat­ic Sen. Ron Wyden asked CIA Dir­ect­or John Bren­nan in Janu­ary. Wyden pressed Bren­nan on wheth­er a fed­er­al law that bans un­au­thor­ized hack­ing in­to com­puters ap­plies to the CIA. At the time, Bren­nan said he was un­sure and would have to get back to the sen­at­or in writ­ing.

On Wed­nes­day, after news broke of the al­leged CIA spy­ing, Wyden re­leased Bren­nan’s let­ter re­spond­ing to the ques­tion. Bren­nan said that the anti-hack­ing law does in fact ap­ply to the CIA, but he noted that the law ex­pressly “does not pro­hib­it any law­ful au­thor­ized in­vest­ig­at­ive, pro­tect­ive, or in­tel­li­gence activ­ity.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are threatening to block the spending bill—and prevent the Senate from leaving town—"because it would not extend benefits for retired coal miners for a year or pay for their pension plans. The current version of the bill would extend health benefits for four months. ... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday afternoon moved to end debate on the continuing resolution to fund the government through April 28. But unless Senate Democrats relent, that vote cannot be held until Saturday at 1 a.m. at the earliest, one hour after the current funding measure expires."

Source:

PARLIAMENT VOTED 234-56

South Korean President Impeached

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The South Korean parliament voted on Friday morning to impeach President Park Geun-hye over charges of corruption, claiming she allowed undue influence to a close confidante of hers. Ms. Park is now suspended as president for 180 days. South Korea's Constitutional Court will hear the case and decide whether to uphold or overturn the impeachment.

Source:

CLOSED FOR INAUGURAL ACTIVITIES

NPS: Women’s March Can’t Use Lincoln Memorial

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THE DETAILS

Participants in the women's march on Washington the day after inauguration won't have access to the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service has "filed documents securing large swaths of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities. None of these spots will be open for protesters."

Source:

2.1 PERCENT IN 2017

President Obama Boosts Civilian Federal Pay

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President Obama on Thursday announced a pay raise for civilian federal employees of 2.1 percent come January 2017. He had said multiple times this year that salaries would go up 1.6 percent, so the Thursday announcement came as a surprise. The change was likely made to match the 2.1 percent increase in salary that members of the military will receive.

Source:

SHUTDOWN LOOMING

House Approves Spending Bill

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BREAKING

The House has completed it's business for 2016 by passing a spending bill which will keep the government funded through April 28. The final vote tally was 326-96. The bill's standing in the Senate is a bit tenuous at the moment, as a trio of Democratic Senators have pledged to block the bill unless coal miners get a permanent extension on retirement and health benefits. The government runs out of money on Friday night.